Juno News - July 23, 2024


Canada’s migrant crisis is too serious to ignore


Episode Stats

Length

12 minutes

Words per Minute

160.82164

Word Count

2,033

Sentence Count

127

Hate Speech Sentences

13


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.040 Canada's premiers have turned their focus to asylum seekers in our country as the situation
00:00:12.960 has simply become too big to ignore. A record of over 140,000 people entered Canada last year
00:00:19.440 seeking asylum and of that number, 90% settle in either Ontario or Quebec. Francois Legault
00:00:27.000 is speaking up and saying enough is enough. And when it comes to Doug Ford, well it's not exactly
00:00:32.880 clear where he stands on this asylum seeker issue. It's as if he wants to say that there are too many
00:00:38.200 entering Ontario, which there are, but he doesn't want to come across as being anti-immigration. So
00:00:43.720 instead he boasts, he proudly boasts about Ontario's record population growth. And on top of that he
00:00:50.640 wants the federal government to give all of Ontario's asylum seekers work permits. And on the other hand
00:00:56.160 Danielle Smith, who really is turning out to be quite a disappointment on immigration,
00:01:00.640 is now saying that Alberta is taking in too many as well. Manitoba and Newfoundland meanwhile are the
00:01:06.800 only two provinces in Canada publicly asking to take more. We all know that this is completely
00:01:12.440 unsustainable. We can't go on with a policy of mass immigration while also being the landing ground for
00:01:18.540 the world's asylum seekers. When our people are struggling to be able to afford rent and to enter
00:01:23.040 the housing market, and when our young people can't find work and are struggling to put food on
00:01:27.520 their table, we can't be in a position where provincial and federal governments are spending
00:01:31.840 billions of dollars a year to house asylum seekers in hotels. Besides equalization, this seems to be the
00:01:38.400 main topic of debate between premiers and Justin Trudeau. So let's bring you up to speed on what
00:01:43.200 premiers are saying about this. Before we do, however, be sure to drop a like on this video, help us
00:01:47.520 up with subscribing to the True North YouTube channel. And the comment question for the episode
00:01:51.440 is this. Should Canada put a cap on asylum claims? Let me know your answer in the comments section below
00:01:58.320 and let's get into it. As it stands right now, there are currently over 597,000 non-permanent
00:02:04.640 residents living in Quebec. And of that number, 190,000 are asylum seekers. It's too much! It's too much!
00:02:12.960 Of course, that number is completely ridiculous. You have to start thinking about where these
00:02:17.760 people are going to live, how they're going to be able to contribute to the economy, how they're
00:02:22.240 going to fit into Quebec culture and Canadian culture. And to Francois Legault, the situation is
00:02:28.080 untenable. How much success did you have last night speaking to the other premiers trying to convince
00:02:32.000 them to take on more asylum seekers? First, I want to keep private discussions private,
00:02:37.760 but I think it's clear that it doesn't make sense right now. We have 190,000 asylum seekers.
00:02:48.480 We cannot afford housing reasons. We don't have enough teachers. We don't have enough nurses. And
00:02:55.760 the future of France on the island of Montreal is in place. So we really need to first decrease this
00:03:04.080 number. Of course, some are open to transfer some asylum seekers in other provinces. Some are not,
00:03:14.960 because most of them are not qualified. So other provinces, they would like to have only qualified immigrants.
00:03:23.360 Francois Legault's request to Canadian premiers in the federal government isn't to lower the number
00:03:29.280 of asylum seekers allowed to enter the country. Instead, it seems to be to ship these asylum seekers
00:03:35.600 to other provinces, spread them out across the country more evenly. And as you could have guessed,
00:03:40.800 the situation in Ontario is equally as bad. In 2023, it was calculated that the number of non-permanent
00:03:47.520 residents living in Ontario was over 1.2 million people. And by January 1st of 2024, the beginning
00:03:54.800 of the year, the number of asylum claimants in Ontario was 124,000. And that number in January 1st of
00:04:02.800 2023 was only 77,000, an increase of over 47,000. And what's even more striking is that Ontario's
00:04:12.160 non-permanent resident population increased by 42% from the year prior. At the beginning of 2023,
00:04:19.520 the number of non-permanent residents was at 844,000. Now, as I said before, that number is over
00:04:26.880 1.2 million. And so when Doug Ford took the mic last week at the premier's meeting in Halifax,
00:04:31.840 of course, he was able to admit the obvious that Ontario is taking in a lot of refugees, far too many.
00:04:37.760 But of course, Ford went a step further, calling on the federal government to speed up work permit
00:04:43.120 processing for all of these asylum seekers. After all, what are they going to do if they're just
00:04:48.240 living in hotels and not really doing anything, just collecting benefits?
00:04:52.160 I think when it comes to asylum seekers, both Quebec and Ontario share the front of it. And we're just
00:05:00.400 asking the federal government to give our fair share. We've spent over a billion dollars in Ontario
00:05:04.800 every single year. And I talk to these folks, I have quite a few of them up in my riding,
00:05:12.800 and they want to work. They want a better life. And it's taking way too long to get a working visa
00:05:19.280 from the federal government. We've received just Toronto, we've received about 162 million,
00:05:26.080 but we're spending over a billion dollars. So we need the working visa for these folks as quickly as
00:05:33.200 possible. Now, according to Doug Ford, the province of Ontario is spending over a billion dollars a year
00:05:38.480 to house asylum seekers. Alberta Premier Daniel Smith and British Columbia Premier David Eby
00:05:43.840 were both asked by reporters if they were willing to lighten the load off of Ontario and Quebec and
00:05:48.800 take in more refugees. But they also are taking in quite a lot. So they're running into the same
00:05:53.920 problems. Where do we house these people? And how do we make sure that the needs of our own
00:05:58.400 Canadian citizens, those that live in our respective provinces, are being put first?
00:06:04.000 I can tell you Alberta is now the destination for 22% of newcomers to Canada, even though we're only
00:06:10.800 12% of the population. So I would say that both Quebec and Alberta share an interest in having the
00:06:16.160 federal government support those asylum seekers so that we can provide the social services, provide the
00:06:21.920 integration, provide the language training. And I've watched that Premier Legolas has some success in
00:06:28.400 getting the federal government to meet its commitment. We would like them to meet the same
00:06:30.800 commitment in Alberta. The only two provinces in Canada willing to actually take in more asylum
00:06:35.600 seekers happen to be Manitoba and Newfoundland. You know, I'd be curious to know what Manitobans
00:06:40.800 and Newfoundlanders think about that idea. Would they like for their provincial governments to be
00:06:45.520 spending hundreds of millions of dollars to assist asylum seekers? Look at this data compiled by
00:06:50.880 Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to show you just simply how big of an issue this really
00:06:56.800 is. Asylum claims into Canada have skyrocketed over the past two years. 2022 with 91,700 asylum claims
00:07:06.080 was its own record, only to be surpassed by last year's numbers at 144,000. In 2023, the majority of
00:07:13.360 asylum claims came from people fleeing Mexico. Underneath Mexico, you had India, Nigeria,
00:07:20.880 Turkey and Colombia. I want to now point you to this very important piece of data compiled again
00:07:27.600 by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. It's broken down in the first three months of 2023
00:07:34.240 and then for the rest of the year. In March of 2023, the federal government shut down Roxham Road,
00:07:41.440 the infamous illegal point of entry in Quebec where so many asylum seekers would enter Canada. Before the
00:07:48.160 federal government shut down Roxham Road, 45% of asylum claims came between official ports of entry.
00:07:55.280 That's just another way of saying they came into this country at an illegal entry point. After the
00:08:01.120 federal government shut down Roxham Road, 54% of asylum claims were made inland. They were made once
00:08:08.640 people had already entered Canada, followed by airports, people flying into Canada and immediately
00:08:15.040 claiming asylum upon landing in our country. And then you have land ports of entry and then you have
00:08:21.360 0.1% of asylum claims coming from illegal points of entry. That decision to shut down Roxham Road was
00:08:30.960 part of the safe third country agreement with the United States. It seems as though the majority of
00:08:36.640 asylum seekers in Canada are being housed in hotels at the federal government's expense, at your expense.
00:08:43.520 It would follow that they're also being fed at your expense as well. But it's very clear that this entire
00:08:49.360 situation is becoming untenable. And if Canada is bound by international law to continue accepting
00:08:56.960 infinite numbers of asylum seekers simply because they make a claim of asylum upon entering Canada,
00:09:03.600 how exactly does this problem ever get fixed? Infinite growth is simply untenable in Canada. We are not
00:09:11.040 prepared for such rapid increases in population growth. It might make GDP numbers look good, but it doesn't
00:09:18.560 help Canadians. It hurts Canadians. We have the data to prove that. GDP per capita is decreasing. Canadians
00:09:26.640 are getting poorer. No matter where they come from, Canadians are not benefiting from infinite population
00:09:34.400 growth. But according to Ontario Premier Doug Ford, this is all cause for celebration.
00:09:41.680 Friends, as everyone in this room knows, this region is growing at a rapid pace. Matter of fact, not just this region,
00:09:49.680 Ontario is the fastest growing region in North America, bar none. And I'll give you one example.
00:09:57.600 When you talk to two great governors, one from Florida and Texas, they love saying,
00:10:02.880 we're the fastest growing state in the US. And yes, they're the fastest growing states.
00:10:08.080 They bring in 1000 people a day. So that's 365,000 each state. Last year, we brought in over 800,000 people.
00:10:17.040 So we're bringing more people than both Texas and Florida combined. Over 16 million people will
00:10:24.160 surpass New York state in probably another five, six years. And what has all this done to Ontario?
00:10:30.400 Does Ontario feel like a better province to live in now? Does it feel like a more united province? Does
00:10:37.520 it feel like a province where families can actually start a life for themselves and raise their children? Or does
00:10:45.040 it feel like it's maybe getting a little bit worse? Does it not feel like the province your parents
00:10:50.160 might have grown up in? Are all these new people making you wealthier, making you feel more
00:10:54.800 financially stable? The comments underneath this video are quite telling. Yeah, that's why Ontario is
00:11:00.480 getting worse. Odd flex when your province's economy is performing worse than Alabama and Mississippi
00:11:06.800 combined. I hate what they've done to the once beautiful Ontario and Toronto. Rest in peace,
00:11:12.480 Ontario healthcare. Some may take this commentary to be just out and out anti-refugee. That's fine.
00:11:18.800 I don't really care what they have to say, but it's just simply not true. I'm sure there are plenty
00:11:22.880 of stories of refugees who have come to this country and have made an impact, have done good for this
00:11:29.120 country and have contributed to this country. But the reality is simply this. Canadians are falling
00:11:34.400 behind. Our standard of living seems to be dropping. Whatever graphs and statistics may say,
00:11:40.160 we're getting poorer in this country. We're not getting wealthier. Things are more expensive.
00:11:44.960 It's impossible to afford housing and to even afford rent in many cases. We're not in a position
00:11:50.800 to house the refugees of the world anymore. I don't think we ever were in a position, but that has been
00:11:57.360 part of Canada's global image. Things change. Situations evolve. We're living through that right now.
00:12:03.600 And when it comes to housing infinite numbers of asylum seekers, we are not in the position we were in
00:12:10.400 10 years ago. Now is just not the time to expand this program. It clearly and obviously is the time
00:12:17.760 to restrict it. All right, everyone, that's going to do it for us today on the show. Thank you so much
00:12:21.840 for tuning in. My name is Harrison Faulkner and this is Ratio.